The year was 1938. If you read last week’s column, you’ll recall that during this time, Percival Lowell’s theory of Mars, with water-starved Martians creating canals to drain their polar ice caps, would not be disproven for another 27 years.

One of the most popular novels about those Martians, written in 1897, was H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” a story about Martians coming to our beautiful, watery world to claim it for themselves. And, on a Sunday evening in late October, at least some believed that story had come true.

It was in the golden age of radio, with millions tuned in to hear prime time broadcasts. Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater Company actors had prepared a radio play adaption of “War of the Worlds,” and began their performance on CBS at 8 p.m.

The show started out as a seemingly normal radio program, with a news report about the weather, then orchestra music that went on for a while, only to be interrupted by a breaking news report about the detection of explosions on Mars.

Then the orchestra music continued, until another reporter broke in to announce a large meteor had fallen into a New Jersey farmer’s field. It didn’t take long for them to realize it was no meteor.

Welles’ actors described the Martians emerging from the farmer’s field with their ray guns, destroying a National Guard brigade as other Martian ships landed in Chicago and St. Louis and began to attack the citydwellers there. The reports continued throughout the radio hour, becoming more dire with each passing minute as more cities fell to the alien invaders.

From some newspaper headlines the next day, it seemed like chaos and panic reigned as millions tuned in for the broadcast after the introduction of it as theater, and thought Martians were really invading. And indeed, popular myth has panic in the streets, with reports of the roads of New Jersey packed with people attempting to flee.

One account has a woman running into a church during a service, yelling that New York had been taken, and that everyone should go home and prepare to die. Another had a stoic man and his rifle reporting to a police department, saying he was ready to be sent upstate to fight the Martians.

However, modern day research tells us that very few people actually tuned in to the broadcast, and it didn’t appear that many panicked. There were reports of concerned citizens calling into their local stations and newspapers to ask if the Martian invasion was real, in a very logical manner that people today could stand to use as an example.

As the tale and popularity of the story grew, perhaps so did the number of people who claimed to have heard it that night. There were also other points throughout the broadcast, such as before and after a brief intermission, when the “Mercury Theater presents” disclaimer went out.

At the end of the show, in what some say was a hastily added statement once CBS became aware of the panic it was causing, Welles himself went on and clarified that the broadcast was mere theater, a “Boo!” for Halloween.

It’s an enjoyable tale, and kind of fun to imagine hysteria over a fake Martian invasion, but only because we can look back now, knowing it wasn’t real.

If life from Mars ever does arrive on Earth, at this point, it seems more likely that it’ll be in a petri dish rather than flying its own spacecraft.

LOOKING UP THIS WEEK – At dusk, you’ll see Jupiter high in the southern sky and a very bright Venus in the west with a rising Saturn in the southeast. As Venus sets, about two hours later, a very bright Mars will be rising, outshining Saturn in a rare occurrence. Mercury will also be visible in the western twilight. The moon is currently a waxing gibbous and will be full on Friday for the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century, which unfortunately won’t be one we can see from North America. The bright moon will also likely drown out the peak of the Delta Aquarids meteor shower Saturday night, but for those who want to give it a shot, best viewing is away from city lights after midnight, with about 20 meteors expected per hour.